Wrights was tasked with helping the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) increase visitation to the Old Melbourne Gaol during the busy December/January school holiday period. Targeted towards children and their families, ‘Escape the Gaol’ was introduced exclusively for the holiday period, providing something new and interesting to capture the attention of media and drive domestic attendance.

In order to showcase the Gaol’s unique and experiential offering to attract visitors, Wrights implemented a strategic media relations plan.

Wrights developed media materials that were distributed to leading news, parenting and lifestyle publications and event listing websites. The media materials focused on the new, limited-edition ‘Escape the Gaol’ experience and positioned it as the must-do activity for kids to do on the school holidays.

In addition, Wrights coordinated an event to celebrate the launch of ‘Escape the Gaol’ and invited a small selection of mummy bloggers and lifestyle influencers to attend with their children. The children participated in the activity and influencers were encouraged to capture and share content on their social media channels with their followers.

The campaign focused extensively on securing ‘What’s On’ listings with a number of key news, tourism, parenting and lifestyle media. Coverage included pieces in Herald Sun, The Age, City of Melbourne, The Urban List, TimeOut Melbourne, Visit Victoria, Weekend Notes and Star Weekly. Collectively, over 25 pieces of media coverage were secured, reaching an audience of over 7 million.

The ‘Escape the Gaol’ influencer event resulted in 39 social media posts, with 1,980 engagements and an audience reach of over 230,000.

As a result of the PR activity, the NTAV noted a significant increase in visitation to the Gaol for the duration of the campaign, which hit a record high on Friday, 29 December 2017 – three days after ‘Escape the Gaol’ officially launched.

Read more at our work with the Old Melbourne Gaol and National Trust of Australia (Victoria) here.